, 1887-10-16
THE peaslAN,s supeasrlrroNs.

He Questions tho Oracles on Every oc-
casIon-An Kinds of signs-Evil Eye.
In the same measure, however, as he
lacks exact information on almost every
subject, the Persian puts his trust in al
most every form of superstition. And this
is true from the highest down to the
lowest. The Persian believes there is no
such thing as chance. He is firmly CON
WINGED that a special providence actively
interferes in even the minutest and most
trivial affairs of life. AS Hoyle says:
"When in doubt take the trickl" SO the
Persian, when in doubt, will also resort
to a trick-counting his rosary. If the
number of beads at the catch, counting
from the one he picked up at random, be
an e one, especially il it be thirteen
or nine, he will not do the business in
hand, conclude the bargain he was bag
Cling for, nor even take a stroll in the
open air, 10 matter 10Y strong the in
ducement. The ancient Greeks likewise
believed in o~racles, but not 50 extensively
as the Persians of today. They viii ques-
ton their oracles at every occasion. For
minor things the rosary is made the ar
bitter, for important ones the Koran and
the poets Hafiz and Saadi. The tombs Of
the latter are also much f%requented for
the same purpose. On the gravestone a
volume of HATH is placed, opened by an
innocent child at random and the latter's
index finger placed on any spot his eye
happens to strike on that page. If the
passage be something after this strain,
Happy art thou, oh, son of the faith,
for Allah will bless theeI" it is considered
a lucky omen. If the words portend
evil, the project in hand is off.
Tho oatrD1pnara y otilI nc op,,iDotooH
in Persia today as they once were in me-
diRval Europe. Important matters of
state are never preached unless the horo-
scope has before pronounced favorably
upon it. The shah himself will not un-
dertake anything without first having
consulted the horoscope, not even a hunt
ing excursion Of a day or so, nor the pur-
chase of a new slave girl. There are also
all kinds of ''signs." Stumbling over
any obstacle early in the day, q fit of
sneezing before setting out on a journey,
the untoward crawling of a spider across
the road, or the scattered flight of some
birds-these are all signs of evil forebod-
ing. The flight of birds is still as care
fully observed by the Persians as it once
was by the Roman augurs, and if a crow
should happen to fly across his path when
leaving his palace the shah will immedi-
ately u back. 1t is the same with his
grandees, even with most of the few Per-
slams who have spent some years in Eu-
ropean capitals.
But the most common. form of super
stition is the "evil eye" The Persian
word for it is "'baade khadem, " which
literally means bad STEP" This thing
is carried to a ridiculous extent. A Eaby
is healthy and pretty. A friend of the
mother admires the little one in glowing
terms. That would be "baade khadem''
of evil omen-and would be looked
upon as a diabolical design to injure the
child if the phrase '~.Eenshallah" may
it please Cod were not added to every
eulogium. An old woman looks at the
child from the right hand side-evil eye
again. The father, by accident, speaks
first to the baby at sunrise-evil eye. A
girl, pretty, well hammered, healthy,
with a good dowry, is welded to a man.
The first business undertaking of the
young Benedict turns out disastrously.
Evil eyel Nothing could induce that
man to keep his young wife. She is
''baade khadem" to him, and she's got
to go, willy nilly. AS the divorce law is
such that it virtually lies with the hus-
band alone to keep or send away his wife,
and as the ceremony itself is very simple
and requires neither time nor money, he
soon gets rid of her. Nobody blames him.
"'She was 'baade khadem' to him" every
body says in explanation, and that's
enough.-Wolf Won Schierbrand in The
CoSmoDOlitan,